Mediterranean sea

While putting together the page from the last post and going through my photograph archive, I was caught yet again by these ones and put it on my list to share them, since they are some of my favorites among all the pictures I've ever taken.

The background here is last year, by some (not-so-)“simple twist of fate”, I found myself going from Istanbul to my home town in the south of Brazil. The flight schedule (these were taken around mid-afternoon local time), path, and the weather combined to offer a pretty spectacular bird's-eye view (though this bird would have to be flying very high) of the Mediterranean sea, in particular the Aegean and Ionian seas, and the areas surrounding it.

I hope Turkish Airlines enjoys the free publicity — it was a very good flight, anyway.

Soon thou wilt be ashes, or a skeleton, and a mere name or not even a name; but name is sound and echo. And the things which are much valued in life are empty and rotten and insignificant, and like little dogs biting one another, and little children quarrelling, laughing, and then straightway weeping. But fidelity and modesty and justice and truth are gone

Up to Olympus from the widespread earth.

What then is there which still detains thee here? If the objects of sense are easily changed and unstable, and the organs of perception are dull and easily receive false impressions; and the poor soul itself is an exhalation from blood. But to have good repute amidst such a world as this is an empty thing. What then? Wait in tranquility for thy end, whether it is extinction or removal to another state. And until that time comes, what is sufficient? What else than to venerate the gods and bless them, and to do good to men, and to practise tolerance and self-restraint; but as to everything which is beyond the limits of the poor flesh and breath, to remember that this is neither thine nor in thy power.